Indexing device for bottle closing machines



Nov. 24, 1953 T. cOoKsoN 2,660,354

INDEXING DEVICE FOR BOTTLE cmsmc MACHINES Filed Dec. 26, 1951 s Sheets-Sheet 1 gig, I INVENTOR.

150N450 Z" (co/(501v Argue/MY L. T. COOKSON INDEXING DEVICE FOR BOTTLE CLOSING MACHINES Nov. 24, 1953 Filed Dec.

5 Shgets-Sheet 2 II I III! 'INVENTOR. Zea/men 7. (00% /v Nov. 24, 1953 1,. 'r. cOoKsoN 2,660,354

INDEXING DEVICE FOR BOTTLE CLOSING MACHINES Filed Dec. 26, 1951 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 g INVENTOR.

Zia/men z'dao/rao/v 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR. v 450M420 Z'Coo/rJo/v BY L. T. COOKSON INDEXING DEVICE FOR BOTTLE CLOSING MACHINES Nov. 24, 1953 Filed Dec. 26, 1951 Nov. 24, 15753 L. T. COOKSON INDEXING DEVICE FOR BOTTLE CLOSING MACHINES 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Dec. 26, I951 INVENTOR. zsa/vpza 7' (00/6 /v flrrae/vsy Patented Nov. 24, 1953 INDEXING DEVICE FOR BOTTLE CLOSING MACHINES Leonard T. Cookson, Kalamazoo, Mich., assignor to The Upjohn Company, Kalamazoo, Mich., a

corporation of Michigan Application December 26, 1951, Serial No. 263,440

Claims.

This invention refers to an indexing device for a bottle stoppering or capping machine and particularly refers to a type thereof utilizing a Geneva mechanism.

In the past and for a great many years, a large number of industries have used known devices by which stoppers or caps of various kinds are driven by rams, or other means, into or onto the top of different types of bottles. In all, or most, of these devices there is required mechanism by which bottles are brought into a suitable position under the bottle closing mechanism and are there successively held momentarilyin stationary condition to receive the stopper or cap.

These devices have generally been extremely complicated and have often required the conducting of the bottles around a circular path to efiect the desired operations.

It has thus been desirable to provide a simple mechanism by which a bottle may be positively received, moved into stopper or cap receiving position, held firmly and rigidly in such position, and then moved on. Further, it has been desirable to provide such means which can be driven by a continuously operating motor without involving unreasonably complex, and consequently expensive gearing or other mechanical devices.

Accordingly, a major object of the invention has been to provide a devicefor indexingbottles, particularly applicable to the indexing of bottles in a bottle stoppering or capping machine.

A further object of the invention has been to provide apparatus, as aforesaid, which will be positive and reliable in its operation.

A further object of the invention has been to provide apparatus, as aforesaid, which will be sufliciently simple in its construction that it can be fabricated with a minimum of expense and Will require relatively little maintenance.

A further object of the invention has been to provide apparatus, as aforesaid, which is suffrciently simple in its construction that it can be readily understood by ordinary shop mechanics and can thereby be maintained by relatively unskilled workmen.

Other objects and purposes of the invention will become apparent to persons acquainted with apparatus of this general type upon reading of the following specification and upon a study of the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 represents a side, partially broken, view of a bottle stoppering machine in which the subject matter of this invention is advantageously used, and showing'an assembly view of said apparatus in side elevation.

2 Figure 2 represents a section taken on the line II-II of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a side assembly view of the apparatus of the invention similar to the showing of Figure 1 but on a larger scale and separated from the mechanism with which it operates.

Figure 4 is a top view of the apparatus of the invention.

Figure 5 is a section taken on the line V-V of Figure 3.

Figure 6 is a section taken on the line VI--VI of Figures 3 and 4. V

Figure 7 is a top view of the Geneva drive wheel.

Figure 8 is a section taken on the line VIII-V1II of Figure '7.

Figure 9 is a top view of a crank mechanism engaging the Geneva drive wheel. v

Figure 10 is a section taken on the line X-X of Figure 9.

While the mechanism here disclosed may be used in a variety of circumstances where intermittent indexing of articles is required, it is particularly adaptable to the type of bottle stoppering device illustrated and described in my application Serial No. 263,439 filed concurrently herewith, and hence for purposes of illustration it is illustrated as applied thereto. It should be understood, however, that this is for illustrative purposes only and is not limiting.

Further, for the purpose of convenience in illustration and reference, the terms upwardly" and downwardly, and derivatives thereof, will be utilized to refer to the apparatus in its normal position of use as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2. The term forwardly and rearwardly will refer to the direction of movement of the bottles which is from right to left with respect to' the illustration in Figure 1, so that forward- 1y means leftwardly in Figure 1 and rearwardly means rightwardly with respect to the same illustration, and laterally or transversely refers to directions perpendicular to length of the conveyor in the apparatus as shown.

Turning to the drawings there is shown a supporting frame I comprised of vertical legs 2, having longitudinal angles 3, 4, 5 and 6, connected at the top by a top sheet 1 and connected at the bottom by cross angles 8.

A conveyor 9 runs along the upper surface of the top sheet I and a pair of guides on either side of said conveyor, of which one is shown at [4, hold the bottles in line as they are being moved by said conveyor. A vertically reciprocable ram I0 is placed at a selected point over said conveyor and is vertically reciprocated by any suitable means, such as a pressure fluid cylinder H. A chute 12 having an elongated slot through its bottom is held at a predetermined distance from said conveyor at its lower end by vertically adjustable means l3 and a vertically vibratory motion is imparted to its upper end by any conventional means D, such as a Syntron feeder manufactured and sold by the Syntron Company of Homer City, Pennsylvania, and further illustrated by Patents Nos. 2,305,943, 2,187,717 and 2,464,216, which said means will also feed stoppers into said chute. All of said foregoing structure is set forth in more detail in my said application Serial No. 263,439.

Below said ram and on either side of said conveyor are a pair of bottle metering and holding devices, as the star wheels l and 20, which must rotate at the same speed with respect to each other, and simultaneously, and yet which must be moved toward and away from each other to ad ust the mecha ism to accommodate bottles of different sizes. The means for supporting and driving these star wheels is the subject matter of this invention and will now be described in detail.

Extending downwardly from the top sheet 1 are a air of hanger 2| and 22. To the lower ends of these hangers are bolted the angle members 23 which in turn support the top plate 24. The end plate 25 extends downwardly from the top plate 24 and, together with side plates not shown, supports a bottom plate 2 6.- Said plates are fastened together in any convenient manner. as by welding.

Mounted directly onto the hangers 2i and 22 are bearing structures 21 and 28 through which extends the shaft 29 for rotative support thereby. Said shaft supports abevel gear 3i at its one end, a conveyor driving sprocket 32 intermediate its ends and, if desired, a timing cam 33 at its other end. An adjustment plate 34 (Figs. 1 and 3) is supported, as by bolts for adjustment purposes, to the end plate 25 and this in turn supports a gear box 36. Said gear box will normally be of a reduction type having any convenient ratio by which the motor speed will be reduced to a speed convenient to use for driving the hereinafter mentioned Geneva mechanism and thereby to drive suitable bottle metering and holding devices, as the star wheels l5 and In one specific embodiment of the invention the ratio is 30 to 1. Said gear box 36 is driven from the sheave 31 by a belt 38 from any convenient prime mover 39, such as an electric motor. Said motor may be mounted on the cross angle members 8 if desired.

Bearings 40 and 41 (Fig. 5) are supported on the under sides of the top and bottom plates, 24 and 25, respectively, and in turn support the shaft 42 for free rotation but hold same against vertical axial, movement. The Geneva drive wheel 43 is supported on and by the lower end of said shaft 42 at a. sufficient distance below the bottom plate 26 to allow clearance for the hereinafter menticned driver.

Said driver is located at the lower end of a driver shaft 44 and comprises a crank plate 41 and a roller 49. The driver shaft 44 extends downwardly from the gear box 36 and supports a collar 46 at its lower end. Said collar in turn supports the crank plate 41. As best'shown in Figure 9, said crank plate is contoured at its one end 62 to define a segment of a circle concentric with the driver shaft 44 and at its other end supports the roller 49 for engaging the Geneva drive wheel 43.

Turning now to Figures '7 and 8, the details of the Geneva drive wheel here utilized are shown. Said Geneva drive wheel 43 has a hub 51 for receiving and engaging said shaft 42. An annular section 52 immediately outwardly of the hub 5| is provided at such a depth with respect to the position of the roller 49 that said roller will readily clear the surface 54 defining the lower part of said annular section 52. A plurality of segments 55 are peripherially arranged around said Geneva drive wheel 43 of suilicient height above the surface 54 as to be engaged by the roller 43. Said segments 5% are separated by the channels 5'! whose depth is determined by a. surface constituting an extension of the surface 54 and indicated in broken lines at 58 in Figure 8.

An upstanding flange 59 is provided in segments at the outer periphery of the Geneva drive wheel, each segment thereof being located on each. of said segments 53 and intermediate the channels 51. Its radially inner surface 6i is of such contour that the radially outer surface 62 (Figure 9) of the end of the crank plate 41 remote from the roller will clear said inner surface 61 clearly and without scraping but by an otherwise small margin. Thus, as said driver shaft 44 rotates on its axis, said roller 49 will enter into one of said channels 51, cause motion of the wheel by pressure against one of the walls of the channel in which it has been received and thereby effect rotation of the Geneva drive wheel about the axis of its supporting shaft 42 until said roller moves out of said channel. While said roller is out of said channel the outer surface 62 of the Geneva driver will engagethe inner surface El of the upstanding flange 59 and thereby prevent rotation of the Geneva drive wheel with respect to the driver shaft 44 of the Geneva driver until the roller engages the next adjacent channel 51. wheel is positive and quickly rotated a limited and exacting distance by the Geneva driver and when the rotating. force is removed from the Geneva drive wheel, positive means are provided for holding it against further rotation.

Extending downwardly through both the upper plate 24 and the lower plate 26, are a pair of studs H and 1'2 (Fig. 6). Said studs support sleeves l3 and 14 upon which are supported the gears IT and 15, respectively, which intermesh with each other. The sprockets l8 and 19 are also supported on the sleeves 13 and 14.

As best shown in Figure 4, the gear 63 is in mesh with one of the gears 16 and i1, here the gear l6, by which both of the sleeves l3 and 14 are driven identically and intermittently in accordance with the rotation of the Geneva drive wheel 43. Sleeves 81 and 82 are supported rotatably with respect to said studs H and 12, respectively, at a point above the top plate 24 and each of said sleeves support brackets 33 and 84, respectively. At the other end of said brackets appear suitable sleeves, of which one is shown at 8B, which sleeves support the shafts 81 and 88 which at their upper ends support the bottle metering devices, as the star wheels, 15 and 2D, and at their lower end. support the-sprockets 89 and 9|. A suitable sprocket chain 92 connects the sprockets 89 and I8 and a further sprocket chain 93 connects the sprockets 9| and 1'9. Thus, the shafts 81 and 88 may be moved toward and away from each other without disturbing the rotation of said shafts as driven by the drive mechanism described.

Thus, said Geneva drive.

Operation An upwardly extension of the driver shaft 44 indicated at 94 will serve to drive other mechanism, as the conveyor sprocket 32 and the ram timing cam 33, or same may be driven by other convenient means.

The operation of the apparatus has been substantially indicated throughout the above description of its structure, but further detailing thereof will now be undertaken in interest of completeness.

As the prime mover 39 operating through the belt 38 drives the sheave 31 and thereby the gear box 36, the driver shaft 44 is caused to rotate continuously and at a constant speed. The rotation of the driver shaft 44 rotates the Geneva crank plate 4'! about the axis of said shaft 44 and causesthe roller 49 to move in and out of the several channels 57 in the Geneva drive wheel 43. This effects an intermittent rotation of said Geneva drive wheel in which each increment of rotation follows substantially the pattern of simple harmonic motion. While said roller 49 is out of engagement with the walls of a channel 51, its outer surface 62 engages the inner surface SI for holding said Geneva drive Wheel 43 against rotation. Thus, the shaft 42 is rotated by the rotation of the Geneva drive wheel 43 and through gear 63 the gears 15 and 11 are correspondingly rotated. By the rotation of said gears 16 and Ti, the sprockets l9 and 78, respectively are rotated and these, acting through the sprockets chains 93 and 92, cause identical, intermittent and precisely determinable rotation of the shafts BI and 81. This rotation of said last named shafts imparts the desired intermittent rotation to the star wheels l and 20, and thereby the motion of bottles along said conveyor in the region of the ram, and the holding of the bottles momentarily stationary under said ram, is satisfactorily eifected. t

It will be recognized that the exact speed of such movement of said bottles, the period during which they are moved as compared to the period of dwell, and other time relationships involved by the commonly used control involving the moving of a gate across the conveyor.

Accordingly, it will be understood that I have disclosed and described apparatus adapted for, and capable of, carrying out the objects and purposes above set forth.

While I have illustrated my invention by a preferred embodiment which has been disclosed and described in detail, it will be recognized that numerous variations may be made from the specific form here shown and the hereinafter appended claims should be construed to cover such variations except as said claims by their own terms expressly require otherwise.

I claim:

1. In indexing apparatus for a machine for closing bottles, the combination comprising: a frame; a pair of star wheels; means including star wheel shafts rotatably supporting said star wheels on either side of a path to be traveled by said bottles and in such position that a line conmeeting their axes will pass through the center of a bottle when said bottle is in its position for receiving a closure and a driven sprocket at the lower end of each of said shafts; a pair of arms pivotally afiixed to said frame and having at their respective free ends means rotatably engaging said star wheel shafts; a pair of driving sprockets coaxial with each of said pivot points and a sprocket chain connecting each said driving sprocket with one respective driven sprocket; a Geneva mechanism including a Geneva wheel and a Geneva driver and means rotatably supporting the Geneva wheel on said frame; a gear train driving said driving sprockets in response to rotation of said Geneva wheel; means constantly driving the Geneva driver.

2. In indexing apparatus for a bottle closing machine, the combination comprising: a frame; a pair of star wheels; means including star wheel shafts rotatably supporting said star wheels on either side of a path to be traveled by said bottles and in such position that a line connecting their axes will pass through the center of a bottle when said bottle is in its position for receiving a closure; and a driven sprocket at the lower end of each of said shafts; a pair of arms pivotally aflixed to said frame and having at their respective free ends means rotatably engaging said star wheel shafts; a pair of driving sprockets co-axial with each of said pivot points and. a sprocket chain connecting each said driving sprocket with one respective driven sprocket; a pair of gears intermeshing with each other and each thereof connected for rotation respectively with each of said driving sprockets; a Geneva wheel supporting shaft; a gear aflixed to said last-named shaft and being in mesh with one of said last-named gears; means including said last named shaft supporting a Geneva Wheel; a Geneva driver shaft; means including reduction gear mechanism constantly rotating said Geneva driver shaft and at Geneva driver afiixed to said shaft for constant rotation thereby and in operative engagement with said Geneva wheel.

3. In indexing apparatus for a machine for closing bottles, the combination comprising: a frame; a pair of metering devices; meter device shaft means including a pair of driving sprockets for supporting and rotating said metering devices on either side of a path to be traveled by said bottles and in such position that a line connecting their axes will pass through the center of a bottle when said bottle is in its position for receiving a closure; a pair of arms pivotally affixed to said frame and having at their respective free ends means rotatably engaging said metering device shafts; a Geneva mechanism including a Geneva wheel and a Geneva driver and means rotatably supporting the Geneva wheel on said frame; means including a gear train driving said driving sprockets in response to rotation of said Geneva wheel; means constantly driving the Geneva driver.

4. In indexing apparatus for a machine for closing bottles, the combination comprising: a frame; a pair of metering devices; metering device supporting and driving means including a pair of driving sprockets for supporting and rotating said metering devices on either side of a path to be travelled by said bottles and in such a position that a line connecting their axes will pass through the center of the bottle when said bottle is in its position for receiving a closure; a pair of arms pivotally affixed to said frame and having at their respective pivoted ends means in- 7 eluding a shaft rotativeiy engaging said metering device driving sprockets; means for simu1tane ously and intermittently rotating said shaft and a source of constant rotation driving said lastnamed means.

5. A machine for closing bottles including indexing apparatus comprising the combination: a frame; a pair of metering devices; metering device supporting and driving means for supporting and rotating said metering devices on either side of a path to be travelled by said bottles and in such a position that a line connecting their axes will pass through the center of the bottle when said bottle is in its position for receiving a closure; a pair of arms pivotally affixed to said frame and having drivable means at their respective pivoted ends; means rotatively connecting said metering devices and said drivable means; means -for simultaneously and intermittently rotating said drivable means and a source of constant rotation driving said lastnamed means.

- LEONARD 'I. COOKSON.

No references cited. 

